Arch Linux

kamz

Member

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 9

IPW2100 (once again)

Hello all - new Arch user here.  Very happy so far!

I managed to install Arch just fine, but can't seem to get my wireless connection (through ipw2100) working using the Arch Linux Beginner's Guide and the Wireless Setup portion of the wiki.  My wired connection works just fine.

I have updated, using:

pacman -Syu

I then installed wireless_tools and ipw2100-fw:

pacman -S wireless_tools

pacman -S ipw2100-fw

Then rebooted.

My rc.conf:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
USEDIRECTISA="yes"
TIMEZONE="Canada/Eastern"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(e100 eepro100 mii ieee80211 ipw2100 ac97_bus snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-ac97-codec snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m soundcore acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave)

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="kamil"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
eth0="dhcp"
eth1="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0 eth1)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.1.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
 
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(acpid network !dhcdbd !networkmanager syslog-ng netfs crond @alsa @hal cpufreq @fam @kdm)

The wireless connection should be (I think) eth1, but ifconfig -a shows only lo and eth0.  During boot (and also when doing /etc/rc.d/network restart), I get:

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; No such device.
err, eth1: ioctl SIOCGIFHWADDR: No such device

dmesg | grep ipw2100 shows:

ipw2100: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver, git-1.2.2
ipw2100: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
 sda:<3>ipw2100: eth1: Firmware 'ipw2100-1.3.fw' not available or load failed.
ipw2100: eth1: ipw2100_get_firmware failed: -2
ipw2100: eth1: Failed to power on the adapter.
ipw2100: eth1: Failed to start the firmware.
ipw2100Error calling register_netdev.
ipw2100: probe of 0000:02:0b.0 failed with error -5

Any ideas? I can't think of anything else, and a search through the forums does not seem to provide and (relatively) recent answers.  I'd really like to get this working, because I'm already in love with this distro.  It's brought my old computer back to life.

Cheers and thanks.

_Marco_

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 242

Re: IPW2100 (once again)

"ipw2100: eth1: Failed to start the firmware."
are you sure that it's installed?

edit:
if it's installed, one time for a similar error (with iwl3945) I had to
"rmmod iwl3945" and "modprobe iwl3945" to reload the module..
you can try this too...

Last edited by _Marco_ (2008-06-04 11:57:32)

kamz

Member

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 9

Re: IPW2100 (once again)

I've installed it multiple times with the same result, unfortunately.  Also did a complete removal and a reinstall, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

_Marco_

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 242

Re: IPW2100 (once again)

this is odd...
can you tell me if you have (and where) this file in your system?
"sda:<3>ipw2100: eth1: Firmware 'ipw2100-1.3.fw' not available or load failed."

"locate ipw2100-1.3.fw"

kamz

Member

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 9

Re: IPW2100 (once again)

The file is in two places:

It was installed in /lib/firmware.  I also copied it to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware (because the other two files, ipw2100-1.3-i.fw and ipw2100-1.3-p.fw where in there as well).

I've been reading the official website for ipw2100.  This error is mentioned twice; once in the "Issues" section and once in the INSTALL document, but no definite fix is provided.  Also, both mentions of it seem to be very outdated.

Cheers

Last edited by kamz (2008-06-04 12:40:30)

kamz

Member

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 9

Re: IPW2100 (once again)

Okay, I feel like an idiot for not trying this earlier.

I got it to work by doing:

sudo modprobe -r ipw2100

and then:

sudo modprobe ipw2100

This seems to correct the problem.  I've even got Network Manager running and connecting perfectly under KDEmod.

The only issue now is that this will have to be done after every login.  Any ideas why and how to fix this?

Thanks!